A WOMAN attacked an employee of a dry cleaner s after she was refused a refund. The sales assistant was left terrified and with red marks to her neck after the assault by Patricia Green, Luton Crown Court heard. Emma Kurzner, prosecuting, said Green lost

A WOMAN attacked an employee of a dry cleaner's after she was refused a refund.

The sales assistant was left terrified and with red marks to her neck after the assault by Patricia Green, Luton Crown Court heard.

Emma Kurzner, prosecuting, said Green lost her temper in the dry cleaners in Hitchin last August after being unhappy with the service.

She said: "She was screaming and demanding a refund. She put her hand round the neck of the sales assistant and the other round her mouth."

Green, 58, of Wratten Road West, Hitchin, left after she was warned the police had been called but was traced by her mobile phone number and witnesses to the attack.

When she was arrested she told the police: "You should be charging the dry cleaners not me."

But on Friday she pleaded guilty to common assault. The court heard she had a previous conviction for assault in 1999.

Geoffry Birch, defending, urged Recorder Williamson against a prison sentence and said a community order would be more "realistic and constructive".

He agreed and gave Green a community order with a six-month supervision requirement.